For our 3rd installment of Earth Day Week – I am focusing on eco-friendly photographers in the DC area.  It goes without saying that I highly recommend my brother and his wife from Documentary Associates.  Their weddings have been featured in the Washingtonian‘s Bride and Groom Magazine, The Knot, Essence.com for their work on the Green Wedding Consortium’s Earth Day Wedding Last Year at Decatur House, Eco-Beautiful Weddings, in the Eco Issue of Bride and Bloom Magazine,  Flower Magazine and more!  Their commitment to the environment includes being carbon neutral with Carbonfund, doing various non-profit organization photography, driving a hybrid, donating to various eco causes and more.  We work with them often and they are located right in the office with us in Bethesda!  (Yes that is a photo of me on my wedding day in the Dominican Republic!)

Another eco-friendly favorite photography firm of ours is The Observatory.  Owner Andrea Jacobson uses public transportation and Zipcar when she needs a car!  Growing up on the west coast, she grew up with reusing and recycling since she was a baby!  She took an enormous amount of photography for our first few issues of Eco-Beautiful Weddings – including our 1st issue’s cover shoot!  Their weddings have been featured in the Washingtonian Bride and Groom, Brides Magazine, The Knot and countless blogs.   You can see more about the above wedding photo at the Meridian House by clicking through to this link on United With Love.

One of the most talented photographers in the DC area is Nicole Wolf of Sota Dzine.  She is also really (what I call) a part-time missionary + full time photographer!  She has taken several trips (and will be going back) to Haiti to help build homes for those affected by the terrible earthquake last year.  Her heart is so big that she has raised over $15,000 to build homes on facebook alone (CLICK HERE TO DONATE)! I am helping her with a fundraiser for her Up From Under Project in November of this year (stay tuned).  I don’t know if I could even list where Sota Dzine has been featured here – it would make this post too long.  The photo from above is from a shoot we did together for Photo District News.  Her weddings and photography have been featured literally all over the world and locally in magazines like the Washingtonian, DC Magazine, The Knot along with international ad campaigns and commercial photography (they even photographed Lisa Loeb’s wedding)!  Their whole team is talented and they have big hearts!

Friend and fantastic photographerJennifer Hughes is sweet as she can be and talented beyond compare.  Heralded in both the greater Washington, DC and Baltimore areas – Jennifer is simply one of the best photographers around.  She has earned her reputation through fantastic wedding and commercial photography.  The above wedding photo (and wedding) was featured in the most recent issue of Baltimore Bride.  Click here to see more!  Jennifer also took the photos from our cover editorial from the Winter 2011 Issue of Eco-Beautiful Weddings as well!

a little bit of whimsy photography is another fave of ours that photographed the cover editorial from our Spring 2010 issue of Eco-Beautiful Weddings here locally.  She captures emotions so well at weddings and just has such an eye for detail.  She gives back to the community in so many ways and has recently become a vegetarian.

Balance Photography – One of the founders of the local green wedding showcase + Green America Member and so much more!  This husband and wife team also does some amazing boudoir work!

I have recently fallen in love with photographer Marta Locklear!  She recently did the amazing new cover editorial shoot for the Spring 2011 Issue of Eco-Beautfiul Weddings and she is a genius at using natural light.  She is an eco-gal!  She has her own vegetable garden and wants to start raising her own chickens too!!

Holland Photo Arts loves the environment and gives 5% of their total revenue to various organizations that help make the world a better place!  This husband and wife team is based on Charlottesville – so they are perfect for weddings in the Northern and Southern VA regions.

K Thompson Photography is another one of our favorite local green photographers.  She is a member of the Green Wedding Consortium and supports many eco-related organizations.

Kristi Odom won my heart as a bride that got married in Africa with very few guests and even took her own wedding photography!  She encourages people to see the world and experience new cultures.  She is also a member of the green wedding consortium and donates a portion of her proceeds to various organizations.  Her weddings have been featured in Eco-Beautiful Weddings, United With Love, Wedding Vow, Newnan Coweta, Wedding Event Style and more.

There are more photographers out there doing amazing things – just be sure to ask them when you meet with them.

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Green Idea of the Day and Contests for today – Already been married and need to sell your dress? – List your Gown on BravoBride.com this week and they will plant a tree with the Nature Conservancy!

Still Looking for your Dress?  Find one, pre-owned and become a Princess for a Day at the same time!  Smartbride has gotten together with an amazing bunch of wedding gurus and companies to give a bunch of wedding stuff away now until the royal wedding day next week!  All from eco-friendly vendors.  Great to shop for your gown too!

Scenario #1: You are only paying for a few items of the wedding. Your daughter and her fiancé are paying for the venue and the dinner and they are trying to keep within their budget.  Everywhere they’ve looked that they like is waaay over their budget, so they sheepishly show up for Sunday dinner and suggest your house since you do have a wonderful area for entertaining inside and a large backyard with some big trees and neighbors that don’t have ‘tacky’ yards.  On 1^st thought, this sounds like a really nice way for everyone to save some money! YAY!

Whoa, though!  You and your husband need to really take a good look around the inside of the house where guests might wander and the outside – not only the yard itself but the exterior of the house – need new shutters?  Shingles looking faded? Never did get that patio finished?  Haven’t opened the pool for the last two years?  Inside: floors – need new carpet or does the hardwood need refinishing?  Have you been putting off getting the kitchen redone since the stock market played havoc with your finances (the reason you aren’t paying for everything)? Bathrooms – major stains in sinks or on the ceramic tile?  Did the bath upstairs leak through the ceiling in the guest bath on the 1^st floor?  Would you need to go ahead and buy a new sofa or get the dining room table refinished, paint the downstairs (which would lead to more décor changes), chimney swept, new window treatment and have the backyard professionally landscaped?  Hire a tent person, rent chairs and tables, hire someone to make an altar are for the service itself?  By the time you add everything up, you might be spending much more than renting one of the ‘best’ places available.  If a venue rents for $6000.00 against that $20,000-$45,000 to ‘fix’ the house in order to be ready for the wedding…then perhaps you might want to steer the couple somewhere else.  Don’t forget…this wedding will have its stressors but a lot more might be piled on if it were to be held at your home.

Scenario #2. What if the newly engaged couple suggests the wedding should be held at his home?  Whew!  That would let you off the hook.  But then, ‘they (his parents)’ might be calling most of the shots, wouldn’t they?   Hmmm.  It is your daughter’s wedding.  But, don’t forget, it is their son’s wedding too.  Of course, the reality is that no matter how well you get along with the new ‘in-laws’, there is the location ownership factor to be considered.  In the end, it just might not matter one whit.  However, all of you should consider that aspect before his parents are approached.

Scenario #3. Different types of locations to consider:

Destination wedding….hope you don’t mind if we leave this one for another blog post!

Guest list 75 people. The wedding could be held at a location such as Woodend which offers a MD country setting that is relaxed yet elegant. With its classic Greek portico, sweeping lawns, and spacious, high-ceilinged rooms, Woodend provides a beautiful setting. They do have a list of caterers they allow on property.

Guest list is 180. Perhaps you’ll consider an historic building in DC such as the very elegant Decatur House Museum? As the first neighboring residence to the White House, dating to 1818, the Decatur House is one of the oldest surviving homes in Washington, DC. It sits right on Lafayette Park which can provide the most wonderful backdrop of the White House for outside photos of the wedding party before the event.  Twenty-foot vaulted ceilings top the spacious ballroom, decorated in neutral tones, and the wall of windows and French doors bring the brick courtyard into view.

(Note: if it is held here, then the bride and groom might want to consider spending their wedding night at the Hay Adams Hotel which is only a block away…they can walk there after the reception. Wedding guests with sparklers to send them on their way could form a double line for the couple to walk through.)

Guest list 450 of your nearest and dearest friends, your ex-husband and his wife’s friends, the couples’ friends and co-workers (he is a Congressman – so security is an issue too), his mother and her husband’s friends, his father and his wife’s friends and although you only have 3 children, his family has a blended brood of 8 siblings and their families…plus the bride wants it to be spectacular and in DC!    OK – there are quite a few places to choose from…we really are lucky to have locations that can handle large crowds (remember the inaugural balls/dinners). There is the National Building Museum or how about the Ronald Reagan Building where you can have a reception in the Woodrow Wilson Plaza and the dinner/dancing inside.

One note of caution:  For a wedding/reception to be held in DC or the wedding in VA or MD and the reception in DC – don’t forget about traffic and where will the guests park?   You might want to consider hiring a valet service that will handle all that for you!

Rather than having to run all over town looking at 10-15 sites and think of all the multitude of items for “THE LIST”…might it be better to choose a really wonderful wedding planner?  And might it also be wonderful to choose one that can ‘green’ your daughter’s wedding?  Try the Washington, DC Green Wedding Consortium!

Happy Planning!
~Claudia Van Veen